Through our national and international knowledge exchange activities, we work with partners in government, health policy and promotion, commercial and charitable organisations and education to ensure our work reaches the widest possible audience. To consider collaboration with us please visit our research pages.
Dr Alison Kirk is a Reader in Physical Activity and Health within the Department of Psychological Sciences and Health.
Dr Deirdre Harrington is a Senior Lecturer in Physical Activity and Health within the Department of Psychological Sciences and Health.
Here are some examples of our knowledge exchange work:
- Fitback Scotland - developing a system for monitoring physical fitness of Scottish children. Funded by the Scottish Universities Insight Institute.
- Active Healthy Kids Scotland Report Card - a state of the nation report on diet, physical activity and screen time, outcomes of diet/physical activity/screen time (fitness and obesity), and influences on those health behaviours in Scottish children. In 2024 we will produce a COVID-Impact Report Card funded by the ESRC Impact Acceleration Award.
- Impact of physical activity, screen time and sleep on early childhood development in Malawi. This project arose from three research grants (2021-2026) in collaboration with the Centre for Social Research in Zomba, University of Malawi. Impact activities with stakeholders across Malawi and co-creation of future research are ongoing in 2024, funded by the Scottish Funding Council International Science Partnerships Fun.
- Kirk has been working with Welbot since 2017 to codesign, develop, implement and evaluate new evidence based digital health applications to support employee health and wellbeing. These include: Welbot an application to reduce sedentary behaviour in the workplace and Sentinel an application to support trauma management in front line responders. Funded through Scottish Funding Council, the Stage-Gated process, University and company funds.
- Kirk has been working since 2020 as part of the CAREFIT team to develop a cross platform app to support physical activity of carers. The app has been co-designed from the outset and built in collaboration with app developer Add Jam and involving partnerships with Carers Scotland, Alzheimer Scotland, Strathclyde Sport and a number of Health and Social Care Partnerships. This work is funding from the Stage-Gated process, University funds and the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).
- Kirk and Harrington have been working with Nutrition Scotland since 2022 to codesign, develop, implement and evaluate a new evidence based digital health applications to support people at risk of or with newly diagnosed Type 2 Diabetes in addition to those caring or supporting these people. Funded through Scottish Funding Council, the Stage-Gated process and ESRC Impact Acceleration funding.
- Kirk is an invited editorial board member for Diabetes Research and Wellness Foundation and regularly writes and reviews articles and new patient information resources for people with diabetes in the UK.
- Harrington leads a cross-faculty group of academics and practitioners undertaking knowledge exchange and research into active mobility topics. In particular, the work has focussed on grassroots active mobility practices like bus buses and methods for ‘opening the conversation’ between road users on road space allocation and culture. Some examples of the work can be found on the Actify platform. Find an example of an invited SUSTRANS roundtable.